I’m sure the engines will vary in size. I’m calling this the homestead gasifier. The intent is that people with limited mechanical ability can slap this thing together out of mainly duct work and PVC. It is part of my original reason for getting re-established here. Most of the homesteading people I’ve been communicating with for many years now are mainly into growing food and livestock. Very few with welding skills or building skills beyond building fences or sheds. I’m seeing us all off-grid not far down the line. In my mind, anybody willing to eke out an existence without electricity is not a good scout. Some of the homesteaders have vastly expanded my understanding of growing food. I feel I owe them something out of my wheel house.
Tom , i cant wait to see your design gasifier up and running , i love seeing everyone’s personal take on the simple fire , its how we all learn what works and what does not .
Dave
If a 1/2"nozzle runs a 200 CC engine in a good fashion, then a 1" nozzle can run easy a 800 cc engine ( pure math based 
)
I am with Dave about the blower needed for charcoal… only needs a gentile pull/flow, don’t overpul…
I thought the water vapor (the vapor that comes from the wet coal in the hopper) dilutes my syngas and weakens the engine power
I am also surprised to find that my gas goes out (during the tests) but that my engine seems to work well with this same gas
Could it be that the water in my gas is less of a problem than I fear?
Thierrty
Good question. Because I get condensate in my cyclone catch jar and it seems to some to indicate a fault in my fuel I have been baking my char in the dryer I built. That is two extra steps I’d prefer not doing.
Carbon
atomic number 6
King of the elements
Atomic carbon, systematically named carbon and λ0-methane, also called monocarbon, is colourless gaseous inorganic chemical with the chemical formula C (also written [C]). It is kinetically unstable at ambient temperature and pressure, being removed through autopolymerisation. Polymerization reaction initiated chemically rather than by application of heat or light.
Atomic carbon is the simplest form of carbon, and is also the progenitor of carbon clusters. In addition, it may be considered to be the graphite monomer.
A clean source of atomic carbon can be obtained based on the thermal decomposition of tantalum carbide. In the developed source,[4] carbon is loaded into a thin-walled tantalum tube. After being sealed, it is heated by direct electric current. The solvated carbon atoms diffuse to the outer surface of the tube and, when the temperature rises, the evaporation of atomic carbon from the surface of the tantalum tube is observed. The source provides purely carbon atoms without presence of any additional species.
This work was published in 2014
Krasnokutski, S. A.; Huisken, F. (15 September 2014). “A simple and clean source of low-energy atomic carbon”
Tom , hand on heart where i live i wake up most days in the clouds literally , my area is the wettest & coldest by 4 degs .C all year round in Melbourne Vic AU
i have only a handfull of times ever heard some popping and crackling when lighting the gasifier , my charcoal must absorbed some moisture somehow ,but i do nothing specially to keep it away from the weather other than put a lid on my container and blow the wet leaves off the classifier ramp when i am grinding smaller .
So if you cook your wood into charcoal and then dump it into a sealed drum there should be no problem and no need at all to do a further oven bake .
If its possible could you make a walk around video of your system ? or show me how you make your charcoal
Dave
Chernozem (from Russian: чернозём, tr. chernozyom, IPA: [tɕɪrnɐˈzʲɵm]; “black soil”)[1] is a black-colored soil containing a high percentage of humus[2] (4% to 16%) and high percentages of phosphoric acids, phosphorus, and ammonia. Chernozem is very fertile and can produce high agricultural yields with its high moisture storage capacity. Chernozems are also a Reference Soil Group of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB).
Previously, there was a black market for the soil in Ukraine, where it is known as chornozem (Ukrainian: чорно́зем, romanized: chornózem). The sale of agricultural land has been illegal in Ukraine since 1992 until the ban was lifted in 2020,[6] but the soil, transported by truck, was able to be sold and bought. According to Kharkiv-based “Green Front” NGO, the black market for illegally acquired chernozem in Ukraine was projected to reach approximately US$900 million per year in 2011
The Holocene fire history of Central Europe has revealed that the charred organic matter found in soils today results basically from anthropogenic burning. The vegetation fires laid since the Early Holocene may well have influenced the properties of soils; the early human impact on the global climate system could also be connected to this prehistoric burning. The present thesis contributes to the investigation of potential effects of prehistoric anthropogenic burning on soils. Information about prehistorical agricultural techniques such as slash-and-burn and their impact on the environment are scarce. We do not know much about the processes that consequently lead to the change of natural environments into human-dominated, open cultural landscapes, as it is indicated by several terrestrial archives and proxy-records from the Neolithic (5500-2200 BC).
I’ve never made a video Dave but I’ve been going to. All I have for a camera is a cheap cell phone but I guess that works. Don’t know how long it will record for. Felt like crap earlier today and it’s still snowing so I didn’t go out to work on the simple fire. I’ll have that done by the week end and then take pictures and figure out about posting them and also the dryer. The charcoal is just made in a 55 gallon barrel. No THUD. Right now I’m just getting it out of my wood stove in the house. Still haven’t finished the tank heater/charcoal maker. Real close on that as well. Going to see if I can find a different venue than You-tube. Do not like their politics. Vimeo also censors what they consider unsuitable political content which again is entirely conservative. Brighteon is open.
I would pay chriss to accept and curate your video post . I do not want facebook , youtube or other myself . Henry Buehler
Thanks Tom , also not a great fan of the main stream channels like YouTube ect most of the interesting people and storys have now moved over to BitChute , i guess maybe i should look into that also
The pictures up at 51 are the base/reactor of the simple fire I’m building that I’m calling the homestead gasifier. It’s ready to run now except for nozzles. This thing is designed for people who know even less about gasification than I do. That means they know nothing. It’s made entirely out of parts that can be picked up a a Home Depot in one shopping cart. I made mine so that I could learn more about different nozzles. Today I made this one
This was based on the one that one of the members developed. I don’t remember who it was or I’d give credit. My homestead buddies can’t duplicate this. I want to just make a flute nozzle out of a 4" 3/4 nipple with an end cap. Not sure how many or how big of holes for that. That would be easy enough for them to make. Also thinking of a plain three inch nipple with a Tig cup at the end or the hexaloy ends if they wanted to order them. Anyway some advise on hole size and spacing for the flute nozzle from a four inch pipe would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Tom ,i’m no expert on the flute design , the one i made worked and worked well , i just had problems lighting it after the unit had run a few times a slag build up with slag covering the holes in the flute , so a good poking out before and after shutting down is needed .
For your 6 inch homesteader machine i would use a 1inch pipe nipple all the way through the reactor so its open both ends, that way you can drip water into the tube and any excess will just run out the other end , again it depends on size of engine being run , but i think you would get way with maybe a couple of 10mm or even `12mm holes about 2 inches apart , if you have a look in the nozzle section i think Bruce Southerland used a thick walled copper tube and drilled into it at a angle to allow for his cleaning wire to go inside of the pipe and through into the charcoal .
Dave
On the flute nozzle I built, I followed Kristijans advice and drilled my hole straight (I only used one nozzle hole for a small engine) and then used a round file to make a chamfered slot in the direction of the opening. A slightly crooked wire can slip into the groove easily, and let you poke at the slag from the air intake side. It worked great, and was easy to relight.
What I really need is a reasonably high volume air compressor. I had a 24 CFM engine driven one that I destroyed and it was just barely to keep a sand blaster going. I’d like at least 40 CFM for sand blasting and also to make a shot crete gun.
I’ve looked at a lot of you-tubes and what is being done in some of those doesn’t make much sense to me. I’m thinking that all that would be required would be to take a four cylinder engine of some kind. remover the valve train. Weld nipples into the intake and exhaust holes in the head and mount check valves on those. That would make a two stroke compressor. Piston goes down, sucks in air, piston goes up, pushes air out through a check valve in the storage tank. Tank itself you have the normal unloader and pressure gauge. I think my 24 CFM compressor was powered by a 160cc honda engine. It was a Northern Tool brand. I think a 420 cc preditor should be more than enough to power this. Talk to me.
Seems like at one time there were air compressors that used V8 (ford?) 4 cylinders for power and 4 for compressing air. Depends on what you can get your hands on.
I gave up on the idea of powering one off the same engine providing the power. If what I’m thinking worked, all I would need out of it would be that the pistons still sealed against the cylinder walls. I’d probably weld or fill the other holes in the head with JB Weld though that shouldn’t be necessary. Should be easy enough to find a discarded engine. Only expense to find out if it worked would be the Check valves. Surplus Center.
I came in late to this thread. There was much discussion of putting water into the intake by various means. Here is an interesting article on the subject.
Well I saw this thread down the page and I have something else that puzzles me. If you can boost an engine with a turbo or roots blower why couldn’t you just use pressurized oxygen when you needed a little extra power, sort of like injecting nitrous? I was also thinking about Kyles corvette and the turbo they were using on that. I always kind of assumed that boosting wood gas was a no go because you are limited by the quantity of gas in the one to one ratio whereas with other fuels you are able increase the volume of fuel by altering jet or injector sizes. Is wood gas boostable?